Belize 2026

We arrived at BZE airport on separate planes. Glenn flew via the icebox of Calgary on Westjet, Sheila had a more interesting flight with Tropic Air from Cancun. She had been there a week, with her sister staying at a resort. Her flight out of Comox to Calgary had been delayed by marine fog and she missed her connecting flight to Cancun. So, off she went to Toronto for an overnight stay before catching a couple of hours sleep and an early flight out. Once again, her flight was delayed by fog, this time affecting the Tropic Air plane on its departure from BZE earlier in the day.

Westjet 2274 arrived, more or less, on time. Jusuf of Howler Monkey Resort was waiting and I dropped my bag off in his pick-up truck. Tropic Air 6611  was expected in another 20 minutes, so we opted to wait upstairs in the viewing area. No sign of Tropic Air, but we then checked out arrivals; it turned out that the flight had already landed and Sheila was wondering where everyone was.

We put that all behind us and a half hour later we were at Howler Monkey Resort. We walked along the weathered boardwalk to the White Maya cabin. We organized ourselves, listened to howler monkeys across the Belize River. There was a family of three, from the San Francisco Bay area, also staying at the resort, but it was their last night.  We had booked a 5 night package and it turned out that we would be the only guests on each of our day excursions; our own private tours! 

We settled into a daily routine. Coffee was ready at 6:30am, and I'd walk the boardwalk, past the agouti's, and return to the cottage with two full mugs. Breakfast was at 7:30am and we were typically on the road by 8:00am. Our drives were often about an hour long. On our first day, we went inner tubing through a mile long (or so it seemed) cave (Nohoch Che'en Caves). It looked like it was set up for large volumes of visitors, but we were earlier than most and apparently there were no cruise ships in that day.  After the unique float, we had a really good lunch at Amigos, on the main road. Shortly thereafter, we reached the Belize animal shelter, also known as the Belize Zoo. The zoo has a well deserved excellent reputation. All the animals have been rescued and are in the midst of a forest with simple fencing. Many of the animals were responsive to stimulation and before long, we had tapirs licking our hands and Sheila engaged a young jaguar.

On the next day, we spent the morning on the Belize River, upstream of the resort. The two sons, Jusef & Joseph,  combined to drive the worn boat against the current and point out various birds and lizards. On the return, Jusef cut the engine and we floated back home.  For the afternoon, we were off to Altun Ha,  one of the most accessible Mayan ruins in Belize. We had a so-so lunch at the entrance and it looked like the daily tourist traffic was largely gone or making its way out. Altun Ha is a nice open site, cleared of vegetation, and we clambered on the major temples. Joseph was our guide for the afternoon and provided us with insight. His family has Mayan roots and he was proud of his heritage. We learned the name of many tree species on site, so we could forget them all.

Both the journey and the destination of Lamanai were rewarding. It was an hour drive north to Lamanai Landing, near Orange Walk. We joined two women and we went up the New River in a small boat for about an hour with frequent pauses to see birds and reptiles along the river. I have forgotten her name, but our boat skipper was from Lamanai village. The temples at the Lamanai archeological site were some of the last to be abandoned by the Maya and they are in good shape for the casual observer.  It was an overall rewarding mix of forest, interesting temples and big views to satisfy these jaded travellers; an excellent day out.

Back at the cottage, there was plenty of activity. From our terrace,  we could hear 4 different howler monkey troops, one of which passed through the grounds, in front of our cottage. The howler troop was feeding and moved quite purposefully from tree to tree, avoiding huge leaps. A young monkey hesitated with some of the transfers but mom was nearby and helped out.

Next on our agenda, was a snorkel trip out of Ladyville Marina. Ed and Jusuf had gone to the marina, the day before to clean up and ready the skiff.  We boated for about an hour, past Belize City out towards Goff's Caye  and stopped at a tiny speck of land. We were greeted with an osprey that was successful in catching a fish. The snorkeling wasn't the world's best, but there was still all kinds of corals and reef fish and we were the only people there  We moved onto another site, with a couple of catamaran tourist boats anchored. It was a better site and we did see a timid nurse shark cruising around. 

We didn't have to leave till late morning on our last day, and we wandered around the small trail system  on the resort property. Mel had shown us some clips from the trail cam that they placed to see the nocturnal visitors. We did see tapir tracks while we were out on the trails. Two thumbs up for the Howler Monkey Resort experience. 

Joseph dropped us off at the airport and we checked-in with Maya Air for the short flight to Dangriga. We waited around at Pelican Beach Resort in Dangriga for a couple of hours until all the guests had arrived. Flight delays delayed our departure for a 1 1/2hr boat ride to Manta Island Lodge. It was dark when we arrived and the little island was somewhat disorienting, but we were at the trough for a small Belize buffet by 7:30pm. Our cabana was very nice.

A cool, windy first day pinned us down. I brought out my down jacket that I had packed for the Calgary overnight. The snorkel and dive trips were cancelled that day. We paddled sit-on tops around the more sheltered lagoon. Winds were forecast to ease in the upcoming days. A crew collected sargassum (floating seaweed) that afflicted much of the Caribbean that winter. 

It was still quite cool and windy on our second day. We made a morning paddle in the lagoon, but the waves outside discouraged further travel. However, we were able to go out on a boat based snorkel that afternoon on a wind protected aspect of the reef.. My first impression was that the reef looked quite healthy with no visible coral bleaching. Earlier in the day, a couple of staff had gone out and they free-dived to collect a cooler full of spiny lobsters for our dinner. They were delicious.

On the following day, we got two dives in on Glover’s Reef. The dive master took great care of us, getting into the water and we barely had to touch our gear while on the boat. We hadn't seen so many lobsters out in the open before. The sponges were fabulous.  We didn't see masses of reef fish, but  the reef was looking healthy. 

The next day, we had a later start to diving, so we squeezed in a morning paddle and we were able to get out of the lagoon area. We had two dives in the afternoon. We didn't see much difference between the dive sites and opted to hold on four total dives (our original plan), and to carry on with the snorkeling. 

The boat based snorkeling was scheduled for the afternoon, so we went out with aquatic director for a one hour spin on the catamaran in the morning.

The winds made the morning sailing more exhilarating . However, we were somewhat disappointed that the afternoon snorkeling trip was cancelled on our last full day,  because of poor visibility/conditions.

Overall, we enjoyed our time on Manta Island. The resort was exceptionally well run, however the cool winds had reduced our agenda. We didn't really fit in with the other guests. It had been a splurge for us, but it didn't measure up to some our previous Caribbean sojourns. The boat ride back to the mainland rocked until we were inside the shelter of the barrier reef. We caught the Maya Air flight back to BZE airport. 

We had a couple of extra nights before our return flights, so we opted for a return to Caye Caulker. We had enjoyed our sojourn of 12 nights back in 2012, and we were curious how it was almost 14 years later. A half hour taxi ride from the airport brought us to the water taxi (ferry) terminal and another hour and half by boat onto the caye.  On arrival, it looked more developed with about three-fold more tourists since our previous visit. 

We dropped our bags off with reception at the Rainbow Hotel; our room would be available after 1:00pm.  We headed along the busy main drag, dodging golf carts along the way,  in the direction of the Split. It was all pretty much the same place, except much busier. Belizeans, know the art of the BBQ and before long, we were lunching on chicken at a busy picnic table by the water. Later in the day, we covered more ground, checking out Stingray beach and some of the back streets further south. We caught the sunset on the west side with a load of other people and had a mediocre dinner at Meldy’s that somehow managed a 4.8/5.0 Google rating.

On our first morning, we walked across the street for coffee and cinnamon roll and later walked down the main drag to Anwar Tours. We had signed up for a half day snorkel tour.  There were  eleven of us tourists including a few Canadians. It turned out the guy next to me on the boat was Jeff, a Westjet pilot who was flying us to Calgary the next day. Caye Caulker is a short distance from the barrier reef and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Each of the snorkel sites attracted a half dozen boats or so. Having said, that the snorkeling was pretty good. Fisherman used to clean their fish in an area now know as Shark Alley. These days, the tour boats bring fish scraps to reward the plentiful nurse sharks and stingrays. It was only a metre and half deep, and we were advised not to wear flippers, to keep the sand from being kicked up. It was a fun little show with sharks moving about in all directions and I saw one person accidentally step on a shark.

Later in the day, it was another BBQ chicken, mandatory sunset and dinner at Chef Juan's Kitchen. It was Sunday Funday on the Caye; for a flat fee, participants go out on a party boat for sunset and drink unlimited rum punches.  We were dining near the party epicentre at Bella's Hostel, so many of the partyers  staggered by our table, providing us with quite the entertainment.

Caye Caulker felt like it was past it's prime with less charm than our first visit, but it was still very much a worthy short stopover. 

Departure was rather anti-climatic. Breakfast at Ice and Beans Café, the boat back to the mainland, taxi to the airport and a delicious lunch upstairs before security. I ran into Jeff, our pilot and had a few words with him. When we walked out to the aircraft, Jeff waved from the cockpit and later a flight attendant offered us free drinks on the flight. Our connecting flight got into Comox after midnight, but our neighbour, Stephen, was a real trooper and collected us. Vacation was over.